On behalf of the United Arab
Emirates, I have the pleasure to express to you,
Mr. President, and to your friendly country our sincere
congratulations on your election as President of the
General Assembly at its sixty-third session. I would
also like to thank your predecessor, Mr. Srgjan Kerim,
for successfully guiding the proceedings of the
previous session. I should also take this opportunity to
express my gratitude to Secretary-General Ban Ki-
moon for his unceasing efforts to strengthen the
Organization and re-energize its role in international
affairs.
The United Arab Emirates has made major
progress in a number of domestic areas. For example,
we have increased the representation of women in our
executive and legislative bodies, including by
expanding their effective participation in the labour
market. We are developing national laws on the
protection of and respect for human rights and are
making significant efforts to improve the welfare of
those with special needs. Attempts are also under way
to enact legislation to regulate foreign workers in order
to ensure their full rights. In keeping with our
commitments under relevant bilateral and international
agreements, we are also increasing our efforts to
combat human trafficking and to provide protection
and all the necessary support for its victims.
With regard to the environment, the United Arab
Emirates attaches great importance to environmental
issues. In cooperation with the Worldwide Fund for
Nature, we have launched a number of ambitious
strategic programmes, such as the development of
Masdar City, which will be the world’s first carbon-
and waste-free city, completely dependent on
renewable and clean technologies such as solar energy,
which will be used to generate power and desalinate of
water.
Foreign aid has an important place on our
national agenda. We have continued to provide various
types of financial and humanitarian assistance to many
countries to help them to fund their development
programmes and infrastructure projects. Directly and
through our membership in the United Nations Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Donor
Support Group and our contributions to the specialized
agencies and programmes of the United Nations, we
are also providing assistance to those who have
suffered from wars and natural disasters.
In order to alleviate the suffering of millions of
people as a result of rising food prices, my country has
dispatched 2 million tons of wheat to Yemen, Syria and
Egypt. Also as part of our foreign aid, we have
provided additional financial assistance to help several
developing countries adjust to the phenomenal increase
in their energy costs.
In that regard, we would like to express our
concern about the repercussions of the financial crisis
in international markets. We reiterate that this matter
urgently calls for a joint international mechanism that
will contribute to the establishment of strong and
transparent rules to regulate international financial
markets.
The way in which development has taken place in
the United Arab Emirates provides a vivid example of
tolerance and coexistence. We hope to enrich and
strengthen those values through our educational and
cultural programmes, for we strongly believe that
interaction between different nations and peoples is
both of fundamental importance and an essential
prerequisite for the achievement of stability, welfare
and prosperity in our region.
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The United Arab Emirates therefore attaches
great importance to radically restructuring and
modernizing our educational system to align it with
technological and educational innovations so that it
meets the needs and requirements of our development
programmes. We also believe that providing education
for all is one of the major and significant issues facing
us. It is essential that we devote all our resources to it,
for in education lies the hope that we can break the evil
cycle of poverty and ignorance, which in turn lead to
the creation of a fertile environment in which terrorism
and extremism can take root and grow.
Iran’s ongoing occupation since 1971 of the
United Arab Emirates’` three islands of Abu Musa and
Greater and Lesser Tunb is an issue of central
importance to us. From this rostrum, I would like to
reiterate our firm position demanding the full
restoration of our full sovereignty over the three
occupied islands and their territorial waters, airspace,
continental shelf and exclusive economic zone. The
islands are part and parcel of our national sovereignty.
We reiterate that all actions and measures, whether
military or administrative, undertaken by Iran since its
occupation of the three islands are null and void. Iran’s
actions have no legal effect. We therefore renew our
call to the international community to urge Iran to
respond positively to the sincere appeals of the United
Arab Emirates, the Gulf Cooperation Council and the
League of Arab States by agreeing to resolve the issue
through committed and serious direct negotiations or
by referring the dispute to the International Court of
Justice.
We strongly believe in making the Middle East,
including the Arabian Gulf, a zone free from weapons
of mass destruction. That would require compelling
Israel to comply with United Nations resolutions by
bringing its nuclear facilities into compliance with the
safeguards regime of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) and unconditionally signing the Treaty
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, as other
countries of the region have done. We also urge the
Islamic Republic of Iran to continue its cooperation
with the IAEA and the international community in
order to dispel fears and suspicions related to the
nature and objectives of its nuclear programme. We
also call on all other stakeholders to commit
themselves to continuing to address that issue through
political and diplomatic means in order to avoid
escalation and achieve a peaceful solution that can
ensure stability and security for the region and its
peoples.
Based on our firm belief in the right of countries
to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in
accordance with the safeguards regime of the IAEA,
the United Arab Emirates urges developed nations to
support the legitimate needs of developing countries
for access to nuclear energy by providing them with
the best possible access to the equipment, nuclear
materials and technological and scientific know-how
related to peaceful purposes. The United Arab Emirates
believes that its peaceful nuclear programme provides
a practical and responsible example of transparency in
meeting our energy needs, while at the same time we
pledge not to engage in enrichment or reprocessing,
with the support of the organizations and institutions of
some friendly countries and under the supervision of
the IAEA.
On another front, the United Arab Emirates has
continuously spared no effort to support and promote
every regional and international effort to help the
Government of Iraq and its people. It is our hope that
the latest initiatives of the United Arab Emirates,
including the write-off of more than $7 billion in debt
and interest due and the re-opening of our embassy in
Baghdad, will contribute to promoting economic
development and strengthening the political process.
That will require the renunciation of all communal and
sectarian violence and full commitment to the unity,
sovereignty and stability of Iraq, the preservation of its
Arab identity and the rejection of any attempts to
divide or fragment the country.
With regard to the Middle East, the United Arab
Emirates has strongly supported the Palestinian-Israeli
peace process, including final status negotiations and
the outcome of the Annapolis Conference. In that
context, we would like to express our concerns about
the lack of earnest in Israel’s attitude towards those
negotiations. We call on the international community,
and in particular the Security Council and the members
of the Quartet, to press Israel to lift the siege it has
imposed on the Palestinian people and to implement
international resolutions related to freezing all of its
illegal settlement activity, dismantling unlawful
settlements and ending its occupation of all Palestinian
and Arab territories occupied since 1967, including the
holy city of Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and some
Lebanese territories. Ending the occupation would
bring Israel into compliance with relevant international
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resolutions, the road map and the Arab peace initiative.
It would also ensure the establishment of an
independent Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its
capital, as well as Israel’s security.
My country has cooperated effectively and
consistently with every effort to combat terrorism in all
its forms and manifestations, including money-
laundering. We shall continue to do so in order to rid
the world of that scourge and its causes. At the same
time, we re-emphasize our support for all activities to
promote dialogue among civilizations and enhance the
spirit of tolerance among all faiths.
In closing, I would like to stress the need for full
compliance with the Charter of the United Nations and
international law in meeting the daunting challenges
ahead. I hope that this session will produce
international consensus on how to address those
challenges for the benefit of humankind.